1. Field of the Invention
Inventions relating to launching small boats are classified with material handling and management of bulky articles such as cargo, Class 414 Subclass 506 and 529 through 536. Launching boats from ships is a another problem, classified in Class 114 Subclass 344. Central to our boat launching system is a rope retention guide wire (RRG) of a kind that is classified as a releasable fastener, Class 24 Subclass 115 and Subclass 602.
2. Prior Art
A separate prior art statement has been submitted to report what was found in the patent literature about small boat launching and about releasable fasteners. No art was found that suggested the approach to the problem of small boat launching which we disclose here. What was found is a system for launching a boat from a boat trailer using the winch to urge the boat off the trailer, a different objective from that sought for in our invention, which is to facilitate the launching of a boat by one person and to assure control of the boat once launched.
A variety of releasable fasteners to manage ropes for different purposes are reported, but no reference was found to our application, and no design like ours was uncovered.
A variety of boat launching systems may be observed at any popular boat launching ramp on a fair day. The most common is a launch managed by two or more individuals, one of whom drives the vehicle that pulls the trailer and one of whom assists by pushing the boat off the trailer and then controlling a hand line to the boat. This system puts the assistant in jeopardy as he or she stands on the tongue of the trailer, handling a rope in one hand and pushing off with the other.
Another system employs the winch cable (which is normally employed for loading the boat onto the trailer) as a control cable for launching the boat. This system is dangerous because the ratchet that prevents uncontrolled release of the cable when the winch is used to load the boat must be turned off, with the result that the winch crank handle can spin wildly out of control if it is mismanaged while the boat is rolling off the trailer, when the cable is placed under great tension, with possible injury to the operator and/or a cable fouled on the winch drum due to run on of the winch drum after the boat is launched.
3. The Problem
Small boats are carried on wheeled trailers for travel on the highways, and the boat is launched by backing the trailer down an incline or ramp to approach the shoreline at a place where the water is deep enough to float the boat. As long as the boat is secured upon the bed of the trailer, it is in stable attitude, being supported at its hull and keel by rubber rollers and/or padded boards called bunks. The problem develops when the boat is released from its linkage at the bow eye to the winch post on the trailer because then, when the boat is pushed off the trailer into the water, it is liable to be swept away by the current.
We considered securing the boat to the trailer with a length of rope so that the boat might always be attached, but that approach, without more, is inadequate because as the boat is launched, such a rope is likely to become tangled up on obstacles on the frame of the trailer, to arrest the boat in the middle of the launch, the boat swinging sideways dangerously against the trailer and imperiling the operator who attempts to intervene while waist deep in water with the steel beams of the trailer on one side and on the other side the hull of the boat, swinging against the force of the current or wind.